The membership of the retirement system shall consist of the
following:

(a) New entrants, whose membership in the system is compulsory
upon employment as teachers and nonteachers: Provided, That any
teaching member or nonteaching member, as defined in section three
of this article, who has concurrent employment in an additional job
or jobs which would require the teaching member or nonteaching
member to be a member of the West Virginia Deputy Sheriff
Retirement System, the West Virginia Municipal Police Officers and
Firefighters Retirement System or the West Virginia Emergency
Medical Services Retirement System shall abide by the concurrent
employment statutory provisions of said retirement system and shall
participate in only one retirement system administered by the
retirement board.

(b) The membership of the retirement system shall not include
any person who is an active member of or who has been retired by
the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System, the judge's
retirement system, or the retirement system of the West Virginia
State Police or the supplemental retirement system as provided in
section four-a, article twenty-three of this chapter. The
membership of any person in the retirement system ceases: (1) Upon
the withdrawal of accumulated contributions after the cessation of
service; (2) upon effective retirement date; (3) at death; or (4) upon the date, if any, when after the cessation of service, the
outstanding balance of any loan obtained by the member pursuant to
section thirty-four of this article or section five, article seven-
d of this chapter, plus accrued interest, equals or exceeds the
member's accumulated contributions.

(c) Any former member of the retirement system who has
withdrawn accumulated contributions but subsequently reenters the
retirement system may repay to the retirement fund the amount
withdrawn, plus interest at a rate set by the board, compounded
annually from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment:
Provided, That no repayment may be made until the former member has
completed two years of contributory service after reentry; and the
member shall be accorded all the rights to prior service and
experience as were held at the time of withdrawal of the
accumulated contributions: Provided, however, That no withdrawn
service may be reinstated that has been transferred to another
retirement system from which the member is currently or will in the
future draw benefits based on the same service. The interest paid
shall be deposited in the reserve fund.

(d) No member is eligible for prior service credit unless he
or she is eligible for prior service pension, as prescribed by
section twenty-two of this article; however, a new entrant who
becomes a present teacher as provided in this subdivision shall be
considered eligible for prior service pension upon retirement.

(e) Any individual who is a leased employee is not eligible to participate in the system. For purposes of this system, a "leased
employee" means any individual who performs services as an
independent contractor or pursuant to an agreement with an employee
leasing organization or other similar organization. If a question
arises regarding the status of an individual as a leased employee,
the board has final power to decide the question.

Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2016 Regular Session
The West Virginia Code Online is an unofficial copy of the annotated WV Code, provided as a convenience. It has NOT been edited for publication, and is not in any way official or authoritative.